


The Butcher of Baltimore: The True Story of a Hobbyist Murderer by C.J. Eckermann

by OneSweetMelody



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Fake Non-Fiction, backstory stuff, literally i am the only one who wanted this fic but oh well, me aggressively channels ann rule and the spirit of truman capote, true crime novel, uhh....someone in universe writes a true crime novel about nathan wesninski
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-08
Updated: 2017-11-08
Packaged: 2019-01-31 03:26:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12667275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OneSweetMelody/pseuds/OneSweetMelody
Summary: "Of course it would later be discovered that Wesninski was not only a business owner, but also the ringleader of a large scale crime ring. This in turn would lead many to question whether his acts of violence as The Butcher were carried out by himself or his followers and how many were solo acts rather than murders tied to his crime empire. Even further, it seems that the total death count carried out by Wesninski might be in the 100s rather than the 30 or so murders originally attributed to The Butcher of Baltimore.But before Wesninski could be formally brought in on these charges, he along with several of his employees were found gunned down in the basement of his Baltimore estate. The sole survivor and only witness, a then nineteen year old Neil Josten, was at the scene found sporting severe yet systematically arraigned burns and knife wounds across his face and arms. Years later, Josten still refuses to publicly speak on the events of that night or his long history with Wesninski."-An investigation into the life of Nathan Wesninski, leader of a Baltimore based crime ring whom many believe to be responsible for at least 30 violent murders spanning from the late 80s to early 00s.





	The Butcher of Baltimore: The True Story of a Hobbyist Murderer by C.J. Eckermann

**Author's Note:**

> I listen to a lot of true crime podcasts. And watch a lot of true crime shows/documentaries. And read a lot of true crime. I imagine that Nathan Wesninski is interesting enough that one day someone will want to write a book about him or do a documentary about him. So I'm channeling my inner Ann Rule for this. If you don't like first person, that's fine. It's only the preface. The rest will not be in first person.

I met Neil Josten exactly once after a press junket. He’s shorter in person then I’d expected, I’d say that I towered over him but I never worked up the nerve to speak to him directly. I had been mentally preparing my short introduction and playing it over in my head for the previous week. Truthfully, I’d been planning what I’d wanted to say to him, to ask him, for years even before going to my publicist with the idea for this book.

Sometimes I wonder about the people who get invested in true crime and if their beginnings were as strange as mine. I grew up in Baltimore, Maryland in the late 80s and 90s but even when I went away to Virginia for college, I still found myself drifting back to my hometown. Looking back now, I admit some of that was a sense of morbid curiosity about our very own hometown serial killer whom the papers coined, The Butcher of Baltimore.

The Butcher of Baltimore was something of a legend and a myth tied to as many as 30 unsolved cases in the 90s and early 00s. They killed with both brutality and precision. Some argue that they were more a surgeon than a butcher, but the name stuck after a particularly gruesome set of murders between 1994 and 1995. Parents cautioned their children. National news stations picked up some of the murders. The police had the town on a curfew for months until realizing that they were no closer to solving the mystery than they were before.

Well over a decade later that the FBI apprehended local businessman, Nathan Wesninski, on charges of tax evasion and racketeering while continuing their investigation of other charges.

Of course, it would later be discovered that Wesninski was not only a business owner but also the ringleader of a large-scale crime ring. This, in turn, would lead many to question whether his acts of violence as The Butcher were carried out by himself or his followers and how many were solo acts rather than murders tied to his crime empire. Even further, it seems that the total death count carried out by Wesninski might be in the 100s rather than the 30 or so murders originally attributed to The Butcher of Baltimore.

But before Wesninski could be formally brought in on these charges, he along with several of his employees were found gunned down in the basement of his Baltimore estate. The sole survivor and only witness, a then nineteen-year-old Neil Josten, was found at the scene sporting severe yet systematically arraigned burns and knife wounds across his face and arms. Years later, Josten still refuses to publicly speak on the events of that night or his long history with Wesninski.

Neil Josten is a common household name for reasons outside of his connection to Nathan Wesninski. He is a heavily private man for someone of his profession. Josten is a top-ranked professional exy player. At the time of Wesninski’s death, Josten playing for Palmetto State University exy team on their first championship run. His name was already gaining buzz in the college sports and exy communities with the words “protégé” and “future of the sport” being tossed around. He was also building his still standing reputation of ill content with the press and news media.

I’d hoped it would be different when I approached him. I’d hoped that I’d find the right words to get him to speak about that night or anything he would be willing to share about Nathan Wesninski. I’d hoped for a lot but in the end, I’d failed to approach him. Someone else had beaten me to the punch during the earlier press junket and had faced the full ire of a man who would not be pressed, under any conditions, to relive a traumatic experience in a room of 20 odd people with microphones and cameras aimed at him.

But the reporter’s question still lingered in my mind.

_“Nathaniel, what is it like to be the son of a serial killer?”_

I’d wanted to ask that and more. I was curious to understand the mind of a man who killed people as a profession then, in his leisure time, killed people as a hobby. The man himself was years gone, so it seems like the only person remaining with the answers to these questions would be his only known child. But as I stood in the back of the press room and laid witness to Josten’s eloquently and viciously delivered verbal takedown of the reporter, I was hit with a strange sense of wrongness in what I was planning to do. Partly, I could admit that I was struck by fear, the entire press room went arctic when Josten responded. But a different part of me, the part that’s more human than journalist or investigator, realized that legally changing your name and refusing to answer questions on a matter likely meant that no sweet-talking, seemingly well-meaning writer was going to change your mind.

Human, not writer, understood this, so I still followed him outside of the press room hoping to get at least a few words from him on the matter. But then I saw the scars on his face from that night. They looked different in real life, much like his height, then they do on television. I’m not sure if he even noticed me or if that split second interaction registered to him, but seeing the product of violence so clearly illustrated on his face like a badge or warning, was enough to deter me.

And so, I crawled back to my hotel room to call my publicist and say the interview wasn’t going to happen. She wasn’t surprised in the least.

The non-meeting with Josten changed much of the original drafts of this book. I still have a host of questions to ask him about - how he and his mother managed to run away from Wesninski for years, whether or not his father killed his mother, despite all the previous murders what pushed Wesninski to want his own son dead, what happened that night in the house and who killed Wesninski and his men while leaving only him alive. The Butcher of Baltimore case has been handled by the FBI and many of these questions remain out of public knowledge as aspects of the case are still open. Wesninski cannot be posthumously charged with all The Butcher’s crimes, some even believe that the real Butcher of Baltimore is still out there and Wesninski was just a convenient scapegoat. There are many things we might never fully understand, but here I hope to tackle some that might eventually unravel some things about Nathan Wesninski, East Coast crime lord and presumed Butcher of Baltimore.

June 6, 20XX  
C. J. Eckermann

**Author's Note:**

> Preface over. The only part in first person. Find me on tumblr @thepalmtoptiger.


End file.
